Blair's new focus: Global prosperity

Oct. 18, 2013
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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair shares his thoughts during an interview with The Des Moines Register on Thursday at the World Food Prize in Des Moines. / Christopher Gannon, The Des Moines Register

by Jennifer Jacobs, The Des Moines Register

by Jennifer Jacobs, The Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Six years after his less-than-voluntary exit from Downing Street, Tony Blair's new career as an emissary for global peace and prosperity might be more satisfying than his decade-long stint as Britain's prime minister.

"I have to be careful here about that, but in some ways, I find what I do now more exciting and sometimes - always - more productive," Blair told The Des Moines Register in an interview Thursday.

Blair now crisscrosses the world - in a jet the British press calls "Blair Force One" - focused on public aid and private gain as he tries out strategies to eradicate extreme poverty, religious prejudice, extremist violence, hunger and climate change.

He was in Iowa on Thursday to talk about "40 Chances" - the philosophy that, in life, you have only about 40 productive years after you finish school to make an impact on the world.

It's the central concept in a book of the same name written by Blair's friend Howard G. Buffett, a corn and soybean farmer who will spend $129 million this year to make improvements around the world with seed money from his father, billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Blair and Buffett have joined forces to build urgency in the push for success in developing nations, particularly in Africa, they said.

"The two things the public in America and the U.K. and Europe need to know," Blair told the Register in a side-by-side interview with Buffett, "are these: One, that in fact there has been a lot of positive change in these last years, and two, that there is a new generation of African leadership, at the political, the business and the civil level, that are determined to do the right thing."

One of Blair's charities, the Africa Governance Initiative, sends teams to live and work alongside African leaders seeking to create good government policies, attract investment and relieve poverty and hunger.

During a "40 Chances" panel discussion Thursday during the World Food Prize Symposium, Buffett told the international audience that Blair is "absolutely the top in the world when it comes to governance."

Better than any other former prime minister or U.S. president?

"Yes," Buffett told the Register later. "There's nobody spending the time in Africa that Tony Blair is spending."

Whether to silence his critics or to complete a bucket list of unfinished business, Blair has been reshaping his legacy into something more enduring than what many Britons consider his Iraq misadventure.

In 1997, Blair became the second-youngest prime minister in British history at age 44. But after a decade of economic prosperity, his popularity plummeted and his political party revolted against him.

His decision to join President George W. Bush in the 2003 invasion of Iraq stained his reputation. Polling showed that less than 10 percent of Britons considered Blair trustworthy. The British press referred to Blair, who erroneously echoed claims that Saddam Hussein harbored weapons of mass destruction, as "Bush's poodle."

In June 2007, before the end of the full third term he had intended to serve, Blair tendered his resignation to the Queen.

Blair is still often dogged by protesters at public events back home.

"Happy, Tony?" someone tweeted to @tonyblairoffice this week. "We will not forget."

Asked during Thursday morning's panel discussion if he has experienced resentment, Blair smiled.

"Resentment generally? Yes. A fair amount of it," he said.

He went on to acknowledge that in foreign aid work "sometimes there's a feeling that people from the outside shouldn't tell us what to do." He also stressed that it's often the locals who have the best ideas.

In the Register interview, Blair said his work in Africa today builds on what he did in office.

"For me, Africa was a big part of my focus and legacy as prime minister," he said.

His goal now, he said, "is to change the development policy of leading western governments so that they focus far more on how we help governments build the capacity to deliver, and not on sometimes what are small-scale projects that will appeal to the donor community but aren't actually advancing the country."

Buffett, 58, said his sole goal is to see a peace agreement signed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

"I'm just tired of seeing those people suffer," he said.

Both men have thought about how many of their 40 chances have been used up.